Justin Gallivan, Owner

Justin Gallivan has a unique blend of academic and government experience built as a tenured university professor, and as a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Having served as a grantor and grantee, Justin understands how to craft successful proposals, as well as what different funding agencies value, and how they evaluate proposals.

At DARPA, Justin conceived and managed a research portfolio of over $100M that focused on synthetic biology, microbiome engineering, and living materials. In addition, he managed the Young Faculty Award Program, and several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) efforts. Investments in his portfolio led to the formation of 4 startup companies, and venture funding for several more.

Prior to working at DARPA, Justin was a Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Emory University. At Emory, Justin led a synthetic biology research group that secured millions of dollars in federal (DoD, NIH, NSF) and foundation support.

Justin holds a PhD in chemistry from Caltech, where he also performed postdoctoral studies, and a BS in chemistry from the University of Illinois. He has been named a Beckman Young Investigator, a Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar.